GOP candidates rip four who skipped race-issues debate

Friday

BALTIMORE - Second-tier GOP presidential candidates reached out to African Americans at a debate Thursday night while the party's top-tier candidates stayed away in favor of reaching out for cash.

The top four candidates, in a decision criticized by some Republicans, cited schedule conflicts as their reason for skipping the nationally televised All-American Presidential Forum at Morgan State University, a historically black school.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson were represented by empty podiums on the stage. All four spent parts of Thursday raising money as the campaigns churned toward the Sunday end of the fundraising quarter.

Debate moderator Tavis Smiley jabbed at the no-shows in his opening comments.

“Some of the campaigns who declined our invitation to join us tonight have suggested publicly that this audience would be hostile and unreceptive,” Smiley said. “Since we're live on PBS right now, I can't tell you what I really think of these kinds of comments.”

He praised the six candidates who showed up, and noted “there are some in the Republican Party who do understand the importance of reaching out to people of color,” singling out former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, former Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Rep. Jack Kemp of New York and former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele.

Smiley also noted that President Bush last week said it was important for GOP candidates to reach out to minorities.

Radio personality Tom Joyner, whose audience includes millions of blacks, opened the evening with a greeting to “those of you viewing from home,” and then he listed the four no-shows.

“You know I had to call them out,” he said.

The four candidates who skipped the PBS debate also skipped a June forum hosted by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. Earlier this month, Univision, with a large Hispanic audience, cancelled a GOP debate when McCain was the only top-tier candidate who agreed to participate.

As the candidates debated for 90 minutes on PBS, those who didn't were scattered around the country.

Thompson had three fundraising events in Tennessee, his home state. Romney was in California, wrapping up the day in Rancho Santa Fe. Giuliani also was in California, concluding his day with a fundraising event at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds in Lancaster. McCain began his day with a speech at the Hudson Institute in New York and spent the rest of the day in meetings and fundraising activities.

The candidates who showed up also rapped the no-shows.

“Frankly, I'm embarrassed,” said Huckabee. “I'm embarrassed for our party and I'm embarrassed for those who did not come, because there's long been a divide in this country, and it doesn't get better when we don't show up.”

Brownback apologized for the no-shows and called it a “disgrace that they're not here.”

“You grow political parties by expanding your base, by reaching out to people and getting more people,” Brownback said. “What they're doing is sending the message of narrowing the base, and that's not the right way to go. It's not good for the Republican Party, it's not good for the country. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry to you and I'm sorry to those watching that they're not here.”& amp; amp; amp; lt; /p>

Hunter joked, “You know, when we have family reunions and some of the family members don't show up, we do talk about them.”

The no-shows drew criticism from a growing chorus of Republicans in recent days. Former Rep. J.C. Watts, a black Republican from Oklahoma said, “I think the best that comes out of stupid decisions like this ... is that African-Americans might say, ‘Was it because of my skin color?' Now maybe it wasn't, but African-Americans do say, ‘It crossed my mind.“'

Gingrich, who might join the presidential race, noted that invitations were extended in March and called the schedule conflict excuse “baloney.”

“African Americans have been hurt more by the failures of government” than any other group, Gingrich said this week on “Good Morning America,” adding, “I think Republicans could have, if they had the nerve to do it, a tremendous message” for black voters.

The evening's first question came from Lucille Victoria Rowels of Chicago, winner of an online contest. She wanted to know why blacks “are not able to name even one Republican president in the 142 years since Lincoln's death who have left a positive and significant legacy for black Americans.”

She also wanted to know what each candidate would do as president to leave a positive legacy among blacks.

Huckabee said he hoped blacks would remember President Eisenhower's move to federalize the National Guard in Little Rock in 1957 when a Democratic governor denied blacks admission to schools. He also vowed to fix inequities in the criminal justice system.

“He goes to rehab,” he said of a whites caught with cocaine, “and the black kid goes to prison for 10 years.”

Paul struck a similar note, calling for “repeal of most of federal laws on drugs and the unfairness of how blacks are treated with these drug laws.”

Brownback said he'd back “an official apology from the U.S. government for the institutions of slavery and segregation in this country.”

Hunter said, “I can't talk about young black Americans, the need for them to be shielded from pornography, which is certainly a need, without talking about the need for all Americans to be shielded from pornography.

The White House, without directly criticizing the four candidates who did not show up, offered a similar message. Republicans, said spokeswoman Dana Perino, ”have a strong record to run on and ... should reach out to every community.“

George Mason University political scientist Michael Fauntroy, an expert in African American voting patterns, said showing up probably would not have made a major difference this year, but it hurts the GOP's effort to reach out to minorities.

”In the short term, there are absolutely no consequences because the Republican base is not made up of very many African Americans,“ he said. ”But when the general election rolls around and there is a nominee, that nominee is going to find a much more difficult playing field on which to seek support.“

He called the schedule conflicts ”silly arguments“ and said ”a pattern has been established with these candidates.“

”The Republicans are going to need every vote they can get from African Americans and this is not doing anything to help them in that regard,“ Fauntroy said.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.